Vol. 4 Chap. 12 Volcano Country

Vol. 4 Chap. 12 Volcano Country

This is the life. Truth sighed contentedly. He stretched and twisted, deigning to eat a chunk of melon as the spellhounds ran furiously up and down the lines of traffic. How did I live without a spatial ring? What kind of miserable existence was that?The most uptodate novels are published on n0velbj)n((.))co/m

Have your documents ready for inspection! Commercial vehicles into the far left lane! Carriages with two or more people in the second from the left lane! Everyone else, find another lane and wait for inspection!

Im not sure Im really getting this novel. The title is kind of throwing me for one thing The Black Bellied Farmers Wife Is Abusing the Merchants- I cant fight her noodles! What does that even mean? Is noodles a sex thing here? Or black bellies? Because, and Ill admit to my ignorance here, sounds like a turn off.

Documents.

Here. Say officer-

No questions!

Sorry! Yes, Sorry!

Or is the farmer the one with the black belly? My grammar is still pretty iffy, and reading the language is pretty tough even with the System helping out.

Taking a load of pillows to Beizhan, eh?

Yes, four pallets.

But that is not the last stop on your trip, is it!

No, no officer. As you can see, I am also carrying four hundred kilos of barley to Beizhu. The address is properly listed there, as is the receiving party.

Truth glanced over at the pallets. They were towering stacks of shrink wrapped he-didnt-know-what. They both seemed densely packed. He could hazard a guess about which were the pillows, but he wouldnt put money on it.

Alright, open the trailer. We will run the dogs through.

Hmm. Wonder how much the bribe will be?

Yes officer, at once!

Wait, really? Is it because there are so many people watching? You bastard! I was all comfy.

Grumbling, Truth swept up everything into his spatial ring and hopped on top of one of the pallets. Nearly braining himself in the process, the roof was low, and he hadnt finished adjusting to his new level. He wound up sprawled on his belly, balancing on top of what he was confident was sacks of barley.

They smelled kind of nice, in a grainy sort of way. Very slightly toasted.

Then he swore, spasmed clear off the barley and grabbed his iron horse. He shoved the pallets around quickly, made a gap for the two wheeler, and lay on top of it. Fingers crossed it would work.

The trailer doors opened, and spellhounds with glowing red eyes bounded in. They sniffed eagerly, nosing through everything. Doubling back a few times to examine where Truth had his little bowl of melon. Eventually they piled out of the wagon.

That it?

The biggest dog Truth had ever seen jumped into the wagon. Heavy enough to make the wagon bounce on its springs. It appeared to be equal parts fur and muscle, with a face like a bear and the eyes of an emperor.

He had no idea what impact that would have, but teamsters got everywhere. They would repeat and spread the rumors. People would start to get ideas. The professional paranoids would start focusing on the enemy within. It wouldnt stop the war- far from it. But it might cool it down a little.

Out on the road and heading south. There were fewer army convoys than he imagined. They were still well back from the border, of course, but for some reason, he imagined endless trains of wagons all rumbling down the mountains towards Jeon. So far, nothing.

The sky was darkening, though. Turning deeper and deeper shades of red. If the lava contained the Phoenix's hate, the ash contained its contempt. The ash was drifting south west, pushed along by the prevailing winds. It caught the northernmost bit of Jeon, a much larger piece of Onis, and then on to the rest of the world.

The dust was rocketing high up into the atmosphere, where the fine dust could be carried almost indefinitely. Kept flying on the wings of the Phoenix, was Truths morbid conclusion. Which might have been chalked up to normal consequences of a volcano blowing up, but this was the height of summer. Prime growing season. And suddenly the sun was getting that little bit dimmer.

Truth had thought there would be one last if not good then decent harvest. It wouldnt have been enough on its own, not with the Shattervoid embargo. Still. Something would be a hell of a lot better than the nothing that they would have soon enough.

He processed that thought. How many meters of storage space had Sally gifted him? More to the point, wasnt he the one going around telling people to stock up on canned foods?

Truth turned at the next exit, found the nearest market, and got excessive.

Two hundred kilos of rice later, along with pretty much every dried bean, canned fruits, canned vegetables and every canned stew that didnt trigger traumatic memories later, he was back on the road. He didnt even make it out of the driveway before he doubled back for forty kilos of salt and the entire contents of the spice and dried herb racks. And sugar. He snagged enormous sacks of sugar.

Anything else? How did fresh produce keep in the nowhere space attached to the ring? Pretty well, to judge by the melon. But the store staff were already starting to raise a ruckus about the mysteriously vanishing shelfs worth of food, so he decided to cut things short and move on down the road again.

Pausing only to snag twenty kilos each of potatoes, onions, and carrots. They keep, he reasoned, and you can do an awful lot with them.

He left the balance of the stolen cash at a cash register. Who knows if they would accept it or call the cops. He probably underpaid anyway.

Right now, food was still coming in. Prices were skyrocketing, but food was being delivered. Papering over the rapidly widening cracks in the food system. It wouldnt last.

He was another hundred kilometers down the road when the next spike of paranoia hit. He had stockpiled water, tea and juice already, but just traveling portions. There was a rest station up ahead. A rest station that mysteriously saw all its bottled water vanish, even the big two liter jugs.

He would have to think about how to filter water later. Between the body cultivation and his level, he ate much less than most people. Much less wasnt none. And who knows? He may have more mouths to feed.

Better snag a few tarps too. Never know when you need shelter, and they dont take up much space.

He forced himself to push past the paranoia for the moment. The logical end result of his thinking was a bunker in the mountains, with everything he needed to ride out two years in complete isolation, including the ability to harvest magic. On the one hand, now was absolutely the time to do that. Should have done it years ago, ideally. On the other hand, that wouldnt get him Starbrites head. And that was the only thing that would really save him and his.

If Jeon hadnt rolled out rationing already, it would very, very soon. They knew the famine was coming. War was a good opportunity to get out ahead of it. They already had the Denizens subsisting on rations issued by the government

There was a lurch, but he managed to catch up with his own thoughts.

They already had the Denizens on rations. Once again, he had underestimated the vile efficiency of the Jeon bureaucracy. If they were already training up a slave caste, why not extend the food supply for their betters in the process?

He would bet there were silos, well defended, impeccably vermin-proofed silos, of wheat, rice, corn and other staples. Entire warehouses of fermented cabbage, sealed in jars and buried in the ground. You could live a long time on rice and fermented cabbage, even if you didnt have fresh veggies.

Thin living, though. Very thin. Truth wondered what they would do for meat. Jeon beef was, he had heard, the very best in the world. He didnt believe those ancient families and corporate lords would suddenly decide it was acceptable for them to do without.

All this, and the volcano kept spewing ash up into the atmosphere. Dimming the blue sky. Dying it orange-red. A preview of the flames to come. Truth had seen pictures of the plume. It crackled with infernal lightning. Streaks of flesh obliterating fury crawled up and down the heaven blotting pillar of ash. Not that anyone needed a reminder that this was punishment.

The only component on Truths appalling iron horse that was new was the demon. He had summoned the demon himself, barely a week ago. He pushed it as hard as he dared. Racing south under the cloud. Ready to plunge back into the fire.